Soccer, particularly within the social media age, will not be at all times a welcoming place for Black ladies.
On the Ladies’s World Cup in Australia final yr, Lauren was rightly heralded because the “most naturally gifted participant within the nation”. However we noticed how rapidly the tides of public opinion may flip. After Lauren was handed a pink card for showing to intentionally step on Nigeria’s Michelle Alozie throughout their spherical of 16 conflict (for which she apologised), she discovered herself on the centre of a turbulent media storm.
Lauren is all too conscious of the disparities between how white and black ladies footballers are handled on social media. “Should you do one thing that is not good or I do not know, say you miss an opportunity you must have put away, generally folks understand you as having an ‘angle’ the place somebody of a special color could possibly be…” she trails off.
Have you ever discovered that with your self? I ask. “Yeah.”
How did that really feel? “It’s disappointing,” Lauren begins. “We’re all footballers, and we’re all making an attempt to realize and do the identical factor, so we must always all be handled the identical.”
Whereas there’s nonetheless a lot work to be achieved, Lauren is hopeful about the way forward for ladies’s soccer. “We’re entering into the proper path. We’re seeing much more women play and need to begin enjoying soccer.”
Lauren can be an envoy for McDonald’s Enjoyable Soccer, which runs free soccer periods to youngsters aged 5-11 throughout the nation. “It permits everybody to get entangled irrespective of your background or what well being and wealth you’ve gotten. And it simply permits everybody to get entangled and really feel welcome,” she explains.
Is that this one thing that might’ve appealed to Lauren as a toddler? “For certain,” she says. “After I was youthful, we needed to pay for every part, whether or not that is soccer coaching or transport… this enables a great deal of youngsters to get collectively and attempt to obtain their dream.”
Celebrating scoring her the primary aim in opposition to Denmark in the course of the FIFA Ladies’s World Cup, 2023Justin Setterfield/Getty Pictures
“It is a good feeling to see folks come collectively,” she continues. “I feel that is a strong factor of soccer. It brings a great deal of folks locally collectively.”
Lauren is leaning into her energy as a job mannequin. “I simply hope that the younger women rising up can see that soccer could make them really feel assured and present them that they will do what I am doing,” she says.
With the UEFA Ladies’s European Championships 2025 on the horizon in Switzerland – to not point out a gripping WSL title race in opposition to Arsenal – Lauren has all of it to play for.
“I am wanting ahead to hopefully successful extra trophies and reaching massive issues. After which on the skin, simply making an attempt to assist younger women obtain their goals and assist information them.”
Lauren James was celebrating the most recent free wave of McDonald’s Enjoyable Soccer periods this Autumn, accessible to all youngsters aged 5-11 throughout the UK. Join now to your nearest free session at mcdonalds.co.uk/soccer.